Former Barclays CEO Jess Staley appeared at the High Court in London, UK, on March 14, 2025. Mr Staley is challenging his expulsion from the UK financial sector over his links to Jeffrey Epstein.
Teyfan Sarci | Anadolu | Getty Images
Jess Staley, former JP Morgan Chase executives and formerbarclays The CEO has agreed to be questioned by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on July 23 about his ties to notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a spokesperson for the committee confirmed on Sunday.
The Financial Times first reported that Staley accepted an invitation for a voluntary transcribed interview three weeks ago from Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.).
The Oversight Committee has conducted a series of interviews with high-profile people about Epstein, including former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick.
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi was questioned by the committee on Friday about the Justice Department’s response to the release of files on Epstein.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is scheduled to be questioned by the Oversight Committee on June 10 about his dealings with Epstein.
Billionaire Leon Black is reportedly scheduled to be interviewed by the committee on June 26th, and Goldman Sachs general counsel Kathryn Ruemmler is reportedly scheduled to be interviewed on July 15th.
Mr. Staley was a friend of Mr. Epstein’s and a major client of J.P. Morgan’s private wealth and asset management division when Mr. Staley ran it.
Epstein, a former friend of President Donald Trump, died by suicide in a New York prison in August 2019, weeks after he was arrested on federal child sex trafficking charges.
In 2023, JPMorgan agreed to pay Epstein’s victims $290 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that the bank aided and abetted Epstein’s sex trafficking.
That same year, the bank agreed to pay $75 million to settle a similar lawsuit by the U.S. Virgin Islands government and separately agreed to a confidential settlement with Staley to resolve the bank’s claims that Staley was responsible for civil damages and costs related to Epstein-related lawsuits.
In both public settlements, JPMorgan did not admit wrongdoing in its dealings with Mr. Epstein.
Mr Staley was Barclays’ CEO from October 2015 until his resignation at the end of 2021.
His resignation followed an investigation by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority into how he characterized Barclays’ relationship with Mr Epstein and how that relationship was described in Barclays’ subsequent response to the FCA.
The regulator fined Staley more than $2 million and permanently banned him from holding any management position in the sector in 2023.
Barclays said at the time that its investigation “failed to find that Mr. Staley witnessed or was aware of Mr. Epstein’s alleged crimes, which was a central issue underpinning Barclays’ support for Mr. Staley following his arrest in the summer of 2019.”
Staley said in 2020, “Obviously, I thought I knew him well, but I really didn’t. Certainly, looking back now, given what we know now, I deeply regret ever having had any kind of relationship with Jeffrey.”
—CNBC’s Garrett Downs contributed to this article.
